1. Field
The technology of the present application relates to personal wireless networks, and more specifically to sharing resources between devices having at least one similar functionality that are co-located in a wireless personal area network.
2. Background
Wireless devices such as cellular telephones, radio frequency identification units, laptop computers, navigation tools, and the like are prevalent today. The ability to identify or determine the location of mobile, wireless devices; mobile, wireless terminals; or other mobile, wireless equipment (hereinafter generally referred to as mobile equipment or ME) is becoming ubiquitous. The location of mobile equipment may be determined or estimated using a number of techniques, as are generally known in the industry, using one or more of a number of networks, including, for example, private and public networks, a WLAN, a WWAN, WiFi, WiMax, or the like. The communication protocols may include, for example, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocols, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network protocols, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) network protocols, Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) network protocols, or the like. Additionally, the location or position information may be either a satellite based positioning system, a terrestrial based positioning system, or a hybrid positioning system as is generally known in the art. For example, a satellite based positioning system (SPS) may employ the Global Positioning System (GPS—was originally titled NAVSTAR when developed by the military). Of course, GPS is simply one example of an SPS and other SPSs may be used, such as, for example, other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Galileo positioning system (Europe), Glonass (Russian), Compass/Beidou (Chinese), QZSS (Japanese), a combination thereof, and the like.
According to one exemplary system, the mobile equipment may estimate its position or location based in part on signals received from satellites associated with a SPS, such as the United States' GPS system. Mobile equipment may be configured to communication with a mobile positioning center and/or position determining equipment through an uplink portion of a wireless network and an associated base station to request assistance concerning determining its location. In response to the request, the mobile positioning center and/or positioning determining equipment may transmit the requested information to the mobile equipment through a downlink portion of the wireless network and associated base station. Such requested information may include, for example, identification of satellites currently in view and from which the mobile equipment may be able to receive information regarding the location of the in-view satellites, correction factors, information regarding the Doppler shift to be expected, and the like as is generally known in the art. Transmitting, receiving, and processing the information, acquiring the satellite signals, determining the location, and the like require a significant amount of power that reduces the amount of time the mobile equipment may operate between recharges, new batteries, or the like.
More and more frequently, multiple pieces of mobile equipment are reasonably co-located such that all the pieces of equipment may be considered to be in the same location, such as, for example, containers on a cargo ship, a shipping truck such as a FEDEX® shipping truck, or the like. Additionally, different types of mobile equipment also may be sufficiently co-located as to be considered in the same location. For example, a user of mobile equipment may carry both a cellular telephone and a laptop computer. Today, the equipment may all be fabricated or fitted with a location device, such as those mentioned above. Each piece of mobile equipment, however, separately performs the common application relating to location determination. Thus, two cargo containers, each with a radio frequency identification unit coupled to it, would separately determine their location.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for methods and apparatuses to allow mobile equipment to communicate over a personal area network to allow the mobile equipment to share resources regarding common applications.